Novartis and Malaria No More Bring 2 Million Treatments to Zambian Children

Novartis is providing 2 million doses of its Coartem dispersible antimalarial treatment to Zambia through Malaria No More’s Power of One digital fundraising campaign, which the Swiss drugmaker partially funds.

According to Malaria No More, every dollar donated via Power of One’s social, mobile and e-commerce technologies provides one treatment course for a child with malaria in Zambia, the organization’s first target country.

One million treatments’ worth of donations have come in so far, Novartis said. The company has promised to match those donations one for one, as well as up to 1 million additional treatments annually through 2015.

Novartis CEO Martin Edlund said approximately 500,000 treatments are currently on the ground in-country, with another half million estimated to arrive in the weeks ahead.

Coartem Dispersible (artemether/lumefantrine) is used to treat infants and children with malaria caused by the Plasmodium falciparum, an Anopheles mosquito-borne parasite, or mixed infections including P. falciparum. Novartis also makes Coartem tablets for acute, uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria infections in adults and children weighing at least 11 pounds. The drugmaker’s malaria pipeline includes imidazopyrazines, which can inhibit the development of disease-causing Plasmodium parasites at various stages of infection.

According to UNICEF, 4 million Zambians are affected by malaria each year; at least half of the 8,000 annual deaths occur in children under five years of age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates malaria’s annual worldwide direct costs to be $12 billion. — Lena Freund 

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